Trenton records first homicide of 2013, at least six others injured in string of shootings

Trenton police at the scene of a homicide on Ardmore Avenue last year in a file photo. The city recorded its first fatal shooting of 2013 just before 1 a.m. Jan. 1.Martin Griff /The Times

TRENTON — It only took 55 minutes for Trenton to have its first fatal shooting of 2013.

By the time the first 14 hours of the New Year had passed, at least five other people had been left wounded in shootings throughout the city. Another man was shot in the leg in the West Ward around 9:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve, police said.

The first day of 2013 looked a lot like much of 2012 for the capital city: gun violence that left a 54-year-old man dead, at least two others in critical condition, and police stretched thin.

James Threadgill was standing on the take-out line at Passions bar on East State Street just before 1 a.m. when two men wearing hooded sweatshirts approached him.

“One of the suspects in the hoodies was trying to push his way through the line,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said. “Mr. Threadgill may have had words with him.”

Moments later, as Threadgill walked outside, the man he had quarreled with pulled out a handgun and shot the Trenton resident in the head and leg, Onofri said. Members of Threadgill’s family, who had come to the bar with him to buy alcohol, were there as he fell to the ground.

The assailants escaped. Threadgill was rushed to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he was placed on life support. The machines keeping him alive there were turned off at noon, and Threadgill was pronounced dead.

The night’s gun violence in Trenton had begun on Oakland Street a few hours before Threadgill’s shooting. Around 9:30 p.m. Monday, a man on the 100 block of Oakland was shot in the leg. His injury was not believed to be life-threatening, Onofri said.
That shooting happened steps away from where three men were wounded amid gunfire Sunday afternoon.

At 4:10 a.m. yesterday, police were called out to Emory Avenue near Division Street, where three people were shot. One was wounded in the back, the other in the knee, another in the hand. They were also expected to survive, Onofri said.

Another shooting in the city’s Chambersburg section around 12:15 p.m. yesterday left a man shot multiple times, he said.

The shooting happened on the 100 block of Mott Street, where the victim became involved in a fight outside before gunfire erupted from an unknown number of shooters, Trenton Sgt. Robert Carrier said.

“As the victim ran inside the house, he was shot three times,” Carrier said.

No suspects were identified and no arrests had been made.

A 23-year-old city man was in critical condition after he was shot in the face and shoulder while driving in North Trenton yesterday afternoon, police said.

The victim was on New Rose Street around 1:30 p.m., inside his car, which wound up on the sidewalk after the shooting started.

“It appears someone was chasing him, because it’s all smashed up on the side like it was side-swiped,” Sgt. John Breece said.

The 23-year-old fled the car after being shot, running across the street as some of his teeth dribbled out onto the street from his facial wound. He began pounding on the door of a home on the first block of New Rose seeking shelter, and broke their window before he was let in, Breece said.

An ambulance took the man to Capital Health Regional Medical Center for treatment. There, doctors found the two gunshot wounds and were examining the man’s neck to see if he had also been hit there, Breece said.

The victim’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, Carrier said.

There were 24 homicides reported in Trenton for 2012, the same number as the year before. Last year’s first homicide came the night of Jan. 15.

Threadgill, Trenton’s first homicide victim of 2013, was a former amateur bodybuilder who once held the title of Mr. Trenton. He won the Mr. New Jersey title in 1981, then took third in the tall division of the Junior Mr. America competition in 1982.

Detectives are investigating these crimes. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (609) 989-4170, or the Confidential Tip Line at (609) 989-3663.